5 More Music Festivals Not Named Coachella You Should Be Attending

There’s a ton of stellar music festivals out there beyond the most commonly celebrated on social media. Sure, Coachella’s fantastic, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you limit your attendance to only the top couple stateside options.

We ran through several incredible venues in our previous article, and now we’re back with 5 more festivals you absolutely need to have on your list:

Get your sunscreen, shades, and flippy floppies ready, because this one’s different—a music festival on a boat.

First conceived in 2004, Groove Cruise Miami and LA now represent the “World’s Largest Floating Dance Music Festival.” That title alone should convince you as to its awesomeness, but just in case, here’s the rundown: three to four non-stop days and nights of beach & pool parties, themed events, and an obsessive focus on creating the best music atmosphere possible. There are as many as 50 globally renowned artists boozin' and cruisin’ at any one time, ensuring a sick set is never far off. Oh, and fun fact: Blenders is a proud sponsor of all Groove Cruise shenanigans.

This music festival across the pond has been voted as the “Best Major European Festival” at the EU Festival Awards. That’s impressive, but probably not as impressive as the fact it’s held in an actual friggin’ river fortress (the Petrovaradin Fortress).

The lineups are as badass as the locale, with 2017 alone offering up The Killers, Jason Derulo, Hardwell, Liam Gallagher and more.

Fans of electronic music need look no further than Germany’s Melt. Taking place in an open-air museum, the festival is renowned for its diabolical “sleepless stage”—a non-stop marathon of music that stretches from the wee Saturday morning hours all the way until midday Monday. P.S. There’s also an available party train from Cologne.

Imagine three straight days of rock, pop, hip hop, and dance music, street theatre and various performing arts events, and a “soft-drugs policy,” and you’ll have an idea of the shenanigans in store at Lowlands. Like Glastonbury, this festival operates as a self-contained city of about 55,000—it even has its own newspaper, radio station, and currency!

One of the most well-known of all the festivals in Portugal and Spain, the largest of the Primavera Sound events is a six-day blowout boasting both well-developed and indie acts spanning pop, rock, hip hop and EDM. Just check out the previous headliners: Kendrick Lamar, Queens of the Stone Age, Wu-Tang Clan, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Pixies, The Cure, De La Soul, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, and many more.

As you can see in the photo above, there’s gorgeous views to be had here, so be sure to have your favorite pair of sunglasses at the ready!